Sad Puppy Eyes
Posted on Tue Nov 19th, 2024 @ 12:03pm by Captain Min Seong & Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley
1,690 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Crossed Wires
Location: CO's Office
Timeline: During the away teams mission
Haechi did not like not having her pets. With Gunnar off and away, and no Luka to cling to, the malamute pup was lost and anxious. On Davna's recommendation, Min had agreed to watch the pup while Gunnar was off helping with the mission to the unidentified ship. The door had been propped open as to allow Haechi trotting back and forth between Davna and Luka's office, which the pup did in anxiety before settling near Davna's feet.
That was, until the Lieutenant Colonel decided it was time to visit. Haechi knew his smell by now; the meetings he had with Luka made him familiar for her. And soon, he had a small malamute at his heels. She was quiet, remembering how much he did not like Lugh's generally boisterous nature, she was happy to sit at his heels and stare up at him with big, sad blue eyes. And leaning just enough so that she was not touching him, but she may as well have been.
"Thank you for coming," Min stated, swirling around in the chair, a little farther than she expected. This earned a swear out of her mouth, before she righted herself to face Shaun head on. "I always hated it when they swiveled. But, to the point, it has occurred to me I may have forgotten to mention our current situation. Not intentionally." Min tilted her head, "But that's why you're here. To rectify that."
Shaun was doing his best to ignore Haechi. Not from some disdain, just an internal sense of professional image. His sister had had a dog when he was a kid, plenty happy to allow the thing free range. For his part Shaun had also wanted a dog at 8, however had instead been somewhat forced to settle for walking his sisters pomeranian. It had been after attending to the animal kingdoms answer for "what if a feather duster was sentient and inbred" that Shaun had instead decided he did not want a dog after all.
"Situation?" Shaun asked somewhat simply. He was aware of the ongoing alien ship crisis, and of course the missing Captain, but a small shudder ran through his spin to thing that another issue might have presented itself in the time it had been since he'd vacated this office.
While Min spoke, Haechi did her absolute best to politely lean against the man's calf, making the softest and quietest of whines for pets. "Ah, well. It appears we have had another kidnapping." Min's expression contorted as she said it, brows furrowing and cheeks puffing slightly. "This time, I believe it is Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros? I have yet to have the pleasure to meet her - but she was out walking with this lovely Romulan woman - Caithlin I believe was her name, when she was quite literally abducted in broad daylight in the middle of the park. We have yet to track down any transporter signatures... or anything else for that matter."
Shaun's eyes darted upwards, an almost instinctual action before returning to the Captain, his face hardening into a scowl. Somewhere, a Major General could feel a kind of kindred spirit that no doubt made him scowl a little as well. The disappearance of Captain Mahone had been suspicious, the fight doubly so, but now to have the Lieutenant Commander snagged as well... He tapped his combadge, and all but growled into the device, "MAROPS." There was a pause, replaced by the sound of someone who clearly had been caught off guard.
"Marine Operations, Sergeant Cunningham sir."
"Pull all data from the navigation net, as well as all sensor data. Forward it to Starfleet security." There was another pause, almost like the Sergeant on the other side was weighing whether asking questions in this moment was a good idea. Common sense seemed to win, and a reply came short.
"Yessir." The line went dead. Shaun returned his attention to the Captain, and pulled his hand back from the fluffy fur of the dog pressed against him as he leaned forward. When had he even started petting it?
"We'll send forward everything we have. Sensor logs, orbital scans, flight telemetry from our patrol aircraft, see if your team can make heads or tails of it. I have my suspicions though," he said, gesturing somewhat towards where the approaching alien ship was. "The Atala is supposed to try and make contact, however if they have snagged an officer then we should warn that ship of any impending trouble. If it wasn't our new friends we have another issue."
"That's my guess as well." Min pulled out a PaDD that contained the depiction Caithlin made, handing it to Shaun. She did have to suppress a small smile as she watched the now happy dog curl up and lay down at Shaun's feet. It was the most calm she had seen the pup. "The team on the Atala currently has been appraised of the situation, but if these beings are the same ones on that ship, then we may be dealing with a First Contact situation as well; which complicates things. I know our Intel team is in a tizzy as well. Hopefully our new Strat Ops Chief will be able to straighten all that out. But if this is a new race, we may run into troubles with our translator. I've only heard of the Lieutenant Commander thus far, but I believe her competent enough to navigate tough situations. Hopefully that is all it is."
"If she is aboard the alien ship we can use a directed signal to try and track her aboard the ship, as well as then boosting her universal translator." Waving a hand he kicked on the rooms holoprojectors, and brought up a visualization of the local space. "There three communications relays could be diverted to the task with almost no impact to outbound communications. We might introduce a second delay at worst, but it will allow us to better reach ship. Combined with the Atala we can probably then locate the Lieutenant Commander more easily." A quick wave and the display dissipated. "I know it's not a first choice, but anything goes sideways, I have door kickers I can send as well. The Albatross units are more than equipped for the task."
"That assumes the universal translator likes the language these creatures are using." Min steepled her fingers, deep in thought as she spoke. "We sent a team on the Atala to make contact with the ship already - and if the theory holds strong, we will likely find the Lieutenant Commander fairly quick regardless. I did task the team to update me the immediate moment they managed to do more than say hi. Whether these people have any malicious intention or not, we'll find out fairly quick here. Hopefully soon." She looked out the window, eyes to the sky. "I'm not opposed to your suggestion, but I'm hoping it will be a last resort. With no idea where these people came from, I don't want to find out we started another unintentional scuffle with some higher power. I doubt it - but I have been wrong before."
"That's why I'd recommend boosting the signal, we can use Haumea's main computer to begin building a better language model for translation. Won't be perfect - no universal translation is - but it should give us capacity to hammer at it better than localized systems." Shaun crossed his arms, looking down at Haechi for a moment with a slightly accusatory glance at the fur clinging to his uniform. "I'd also recommend setting up transport inhibitors across the colony temporarily, avoid having them take any more people as guests."
While Haechi harmlessly lay curled up at Shaun's feet, she seemed to detect the look she was getting. She raised her head, responding with a head tilt to the side, her ears matching the motion with a flop.
"I imagine the reports of their ... screeching? May be their language, which will make it all the more difficult to the UT." Min shook her head. "But if it hasn't been performed already on Starfleet's end, I can't imagine they'll object to the order." She frowned. "You know, I have a superstitious department head who insists that disasters come in threes. Typically I don't put stock in their superstitions, but they have proven me wrong before. Hopefully the same doesn't apply here."
Pretending for a moment to count on his fingers, Shaun put on a mock thinking face, before cracking a somewhat sarcastic grin. "I think things here on Haumea come in eights. So you have a few more to go before it all calms down on you. I'd recommend checking out the Silver Tongue. Local made beer makes everything slightly easier," even if the owner is a twat, he thought to himself. "Regardless, do not put too much pressure on yourself to have it go smoothly, in my time here I have learned it will go anything but."
"Oh good I have time." Min looked about as nonplussed by the idea of more trouble, but the idea of going down and getting to know the locals sounded harmless. "Luckily, the Benny is a ship full of reckless scientists who are much more interested in the newest theories than self preservation, so I have a bit of experience in things not going so smooth. Captain Mahone is just lucky he's surrounded himself with people equipped to deal with such catastrophy. Not that he's not capable, of course, but even the most competent commanding officer needs good support from their crew; your efforts are not going under appreciated from me." She offered a weak smile. "However, I shouldn't keep you too long. I feel like we have more to anticipate from our teams soon."
"I appreciate it ma'am. I'll leave you to get settled and comfortable. If you need me, I'll be back with my jarheads, making sure things on our end go smoothly." He stood from where he was gave a slight nod, and left.
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